1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods that are used to distribute and manifest content received via the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). More particularly, the present invention relates to the dynamic manifestation of content within a WWW browser environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have significantly impacted the way people receive information, purchase goods and services, and generally communicate. The Internet and WWW have facilitated whole content delivery industries that provide up-to-the-minute delivery (and sale) of information such as news, weather, sports scores, horoscopes, stock and securities information, etc. Many companies have recognized the great xe2x80x9cgold-rushxe2x80x9d nature of the Internet and have been quick to establish web-sites where people (a.k.a. xe2x80x9cnetwork surfersxe2x80x9d) can visit to purchase books online, to receive specialized content such as investment and other reports, and to subscribe to content delivery services such as xe2x80x9celectronicxe2x80x9d newspapers and magazines. Despite the widespread use and acceptance of the Internet and the WWW, many industry analysts and insiders insist that our society has only begun to realize the advantages of publicly accessible network technologies and predict that our lives will only be further impacted by increased uses of the xe2x80x9cNet.xe2x80x9d
At the same time that the Internet and WWW have become so widely used, the amount of content and information available and distributed via the same has grown exponentially. That volume of information has lead to significant problems for people (network surfers) in terms of locating and receiving desired content. Such problems are due in large part to the fact that while delivery technologies and systems have improved, the ability to organize, index, search, and process that content lags behind.
As such, many companies operate what are known as network indices and xe2x80x9csearch enginesxe2x80x9d and corresponding web sites. Network indices maintained at many web sites typically store expansive lists of links which may be entered manually by network users or which are gathered automatically. Search engines, on the other hand, automatically visit or xe2x80x9ccrawlxe2x80x9d to network sites to automatically peruse content maintained thereby to build comprehensive databases (index files) that later may be scanned by network users through use of keywords via what are referred to as keyword searches.
At the internet and WWW site, www.yahoo.com. for example, network users (a.k.a. xe2x80x9cnetwork surfersxe2x80x9d) may select topic areas from among a pre-configured hierarchical network index tree to peruse lists of hyper-text links related to a particular field of interest (e.g., business, stocks, stock split announcements). The links found in the hierarchical network index may be manually entered by network surfers via an appropriate xe2x80x9cadd linkxe2x80x9d page, or may be entered automatically in response to automatic crawling techniques.
At the Internet and WWW site, www.lycos.com, for example, network surfers are prompted with a dialog box presented within their web browser screens to enter a set of keywords. Such keywords are then submitted back to a web-site server computer system and used to form the basis of an appropriate database query against pre-built databases of indexed content. The results of such queries are presented in the form of exhaustive hyper-text links which a network surfer may select by xe2x80x9cclickingxe2x80x9d to cause his web browser client application (e.g., the INTERNET EXPLORER(copyright) web browser which is manufactured and marketed by MICROSOFT CORPORATION) to traverse the same.
Aside from the aforementioned problems associated with actually locating content on the Internet and WWW, the tools used to peruse that content (and, often, long list of hyper-text links) such as web browser client applications and related software programs are built to merely allow one screen-full of information to be perused at a time. For example, once a network surfer locates and accesses a content source (e.g., visits a web site containing content such as a list of related links, a news feed, stock related information, etc.) he may be faced with having to constantly refresh his web browser screen with the xe2x80x9cnext ten links,xe2x80x9d or scroll through a relatively large amount of text by using navigation buttons, scroll bars, browser application back and forward buttons, etc. Such browsing of content can be time consuming, frustrating, and often, fruitless.
Unfortunately, currently available web browser technologies and products do not effectively allow a network surfer to open a series of separate windows into which separate content streams may cause display of corresponding information. That is, while an underlying operating environment such as MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98(trademark) may support multiple windows each displaying the results of a different program, for example, web browser tools and applications remain relatively crude in terms of their native ability to present only static and exhaustive amounts of text and content in a single content review window or environment (e.g., within a single web browser screen).
To combat the problems addressed above with regard to finding and accessing content and the limitations of the tools available to manifest the same, software developers have offered a variety of network content delivery solutions to generally enhance the web browsing experience. For example, developers have long taken advantage of the ability of web browsers to accept xe2x80x9cplug-insxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9chelperxe2x80x9d applications to provide for enriched content manifestation. Additionally, developers have begun to provide (serve) web content mixed with Java (and Java progeny) type code to enhance content review. And others have created web sites that cause instantiation of additional web browsers (i.e., they cause launching of additional web browser sessions within an operating system) to facilitate multiple window/browser application display of corresponding separate content streams.
An exemplary web site that seeks to ease content location (searching) and which attempts to enrich content manifestation is one maintained at www.mynetscape.com. Such an exemplary web site has become known as a xe2x80x9cportal sitexe2x80x9d where network surfers can visit, receive content from a variety of sources (e.g., news, financial feeds, etc.), and search the web through use of a search engine like or similar to those discussed above. Moreover, at the mynetscape.com portal site as viewed through a web browser, a network surfer is presented with a set of pseudo-windows corresponding to a set of content feeds and/or information requests (e.g., such as web content search templates provided in accordance HTML instructions driven by computer graphic interface (CGI) scripts written in the PERL scripting language, etc.). Such content feeds are referred to at the mynetscape.com web site as xe2x80x9cchannelsxe2x80x9d to draw a parallel to television like stations that may be selected or viewed and even turned OFF. The pseudo-windows are drawn within a web browser screen and manifestation environment using HTML and javascript to appear like tile-type operating system windows which may be customized (changed in terms of the content that is displayed therein), maximized, minimized, and removed. For example, a xe2x80x9cStocksxe2x80x9d channel (pseudo-window) may be perused for information related to certain securities markets and a headline news channel (pseudo-window) may be perused for news story highlight, etc. In each case, a channel (pseudo-window) has certain related controls which may be used to minimize, maximize, and remove the channel from view.
Although the mynetscape.com web site goes a long way to provide a multi-panel visual display of multiple content sources to attempt to facilitate easier location and review of content, it does not go far enough to deliver true window functionality like that offered within underlying operating systems. For example, unlike a true window object that dynamically displays content in an operating system context, a pseudo-window drawn within a network surfer""s web browser is merely a screen section that appears to loaded with content. And that content that is drawn within a pseudo window is static and does not change after rendering by a web browser. In other words, all pseudo-windows rendered by a web browser are, in actuality, merely graphically-bordered screen sections within a web browser content manifestation window that statically display content and which must be completely re-drawn (along with all other pseudo-windows) each time a user-selectable screen-related operation/event occurs within a web browser screen (e.g., such when a single pseudo-window minimization operation is requested by a user upon the occurrence of an appropriate mouse-click event). As such, the pseudo-window functionality provided by the mynetscape.com web site and all similar type web sites are not capable of providing truly controllable windows within a single unframed web browser content manifestation environment which can display dynamic content such as live video, updated stock tickers, motion video, etc.
Thus, there exists a need to provide new and improved systems and methods to facilitate a windowed content manifestation environment within a web browser application. Such systems and methods must allow effective and efficient implementation of web sites without requiring Internet and WWW infrastructures and standards to change. To be viable, network surfers must be able to access a web site to seamlessly take advantage of such new and improved systems and methods without being required to obtain or upgrade their personal computing environments, applications, or systems.
The present invention solves the above-described problems associated with providing access to network content and with manifesting the same to enhance network (world wide webxe2x80x94WWW) use. In so doing, the present invention achieves certain benefits not heretofore realized with prior technologies to access and manifest content. For example, network surfers now can use conventional web browser technologies and software applications to access a portal web site that delivers content in a format that is consistent with other software platforms that operate within a user""s personal data processing system. Furthermore, by providing a true windowing environment within the constraints of the Internet""s infrastructure will allow content providers (e.g., web site operators) to incorporate the present invention to further enrich their sites and enhance the web usage experience. And, because a web browser content manifestation environment may now be made to manifest real content delivery windows without having to refresh a screen image each time a window is controlled, content providers and web site advertisers can cause active advertisements to be displayed and changed within a particular window without requiring a user to click a hyper-text link to purposefully access an additional web site. As such, both users and content providers alike will benefit from the present invention""s new and improved content delivery model.
Accordingly, the present invention solves the aforementioned problems to deliver the above-described benefits by providing new and improved systems and methods for facilitating a windowed content manifestation environment within a world wide web (WWW) browser client. The system and method include and involve a server system that is configured to serve a software system and associated content via an electronic data network such as the Internet and WWW. Also included and involved is a web browser client (web browser software application) operating within a data processing system that is coupled to the server system via the electronic data network and which instantiates a content manifestation environment (e.g., a dynamic screen display environment within the data processing system). The web browser client is operative to receive the software system and the associated content via the server system, to process the software system and the associated content to produce at least one window object within the content manifestation environment. The generated window object(s) are each associated with a set of controllable attributes and are configured to manifest at least a portion of the associated content. The controllable attributes are configured to affect manifestation of the window object(s) by the web browser client within the content manifestation environment. The window object(s) generated within the content manifestation environment may be updated and loaded with content in real-time and without user-intervention (e.g., such as user clicks on hyper-links, etc.) received via the electronic data network without requiring the content manifestation environment to be refreshed (e.g., without requiring screen refresh operations).